NCAA Regional Tournament Softball Press Conference Quotes

Overall thoughts on the Region:'It's a great field with a lot of great programs - programs with a lot of tradition. There are a lot of great seniors here as well, which is going to be exciting. It should be a great week.'

On playing a 'brutal' Pac-10 schedule:'It's a lot like the other conferences out there. Conference play is very intense and very tough. Our conference is well represented in the top-20 and it makes for exciting games, but it also makes for some devastating games on the other side too - you have to deal with a lot. It's all in how your players look at it. It can prepare you or it can kind of knock you down. I think our players are in a good place and feel confident about going into the tournament.'

On whether there is a difference in how OSU is playing now compared to early in the season:'I think programs go through different stages throughout the year. February is different than March, which is different than April and we're now in May. We've gone through four or five different looks. I feel like we're a better team now than we've ever been. We've gained some great experience, played some great competition out of our conference, as well as some of the teams that are in this Regional. We've matured a lot this year and are in a good place'

What was your reaction when you saw OSU headed to Region 7:'It's a very solid field. One through six seeds are very, very strong . I definitely saw a lot of balance when it popped up (on television), as quick as it popped up. It's hard to evaluate it too much in the five seconds that I first got to look at it, but my initial response was a lot of balance and a lot of parity.'